Hanging Up My Feelings With the Ornaments
by C.C. Lyn
Summary: Sequel to Baking Cookies For Everyone But You. What happens when Aki goes to Endou's house to help him decorate the Christmas tree? Will she finally tell him her feelings? And even more importantly, will he return them?


**Warning: Endou x Aki because I support them and not Endou x Natsumi even though Level 5 supports Endou x Natsumi**

"Sayonara, Natsumi-san!" Aki waved as she hopped of the expensive car. The other girl only smiled bitterly and waved in return. Aki knew it was because Endou had asked Aki to help him with the Christmas tree instead of Natsumi, making the other girl very jealous since they both had a crush on the goalkeeper. Truthfully, it was only fair, because Aki had known Endou longer and had supported him from the start while Natsumi used to look down on him. So of course Endou would chose Aki to help him instead of the other girl. Plus how much work could you get out of a rich lady anyway? Not a lot. She couldn't even make rice balls in the right shape, not to mention taste.

Aki skipped up to the porch and rang the doorbell. The rumbling of Batora driving his lady away could be heard behind her. The green haired manager heared the familiar, clumsy footsteps stumbling down the stair that could only belong to Endou. A few moments (and thumps) later, the door opened up revealing the said goalkeeper smiling widely and covered with scratches and a few bruises.

"Konnichiwa, Kino," he said, "Come in, the tree-"

"What happened to you?!" Aki exclaimed worriedly. Usually the boy just got bruises and occasionally a scrape from falling during special training. But scratches? Where did those come from?

"I was setting up the tree," Endou replied, still in that cheerful tone.

Aki frowned. "I thought you said we would haul the box out together." Endou's Chrismas tree was synthetic and was stored in a big box in the garage during the other eleven months. It was always a pain to take out and set up and always required at least two people. But at least that explained the scratches.

"Just using it as part of my special training," Endou told her. Aki signed. Endou was always biting off more than he could chew, but always managing to swallow it somehow and still survive to take another bite.

The green haired manager followed Endou into their living room where the tree was already set up. A big box overflowing with ornaments lay next to the empty tree. Aki's eyes lit up seeing all the beautiful red and gold ornaments varying in shapes and sizes.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Endou exclaimed. "Time to decorate the tree!" the two squealed excitedly like five year olds as they dug into the box. It was times like this Aki felt best around Endou. They could just act like kids again.

About five minutes later when they had calmed down a little and was three fourth done putting up all the ornaments, Aki decided to pop the question that she had been hesitating to ask for a long time. No time like the present. Reaching her hands into the box, she asked, "Ne, Endou-kun, do you like me?" She felt her face heat up and go red, but at least she didn't need to have eye contact because she was digging in the box.

"Course I do," he said but paused what he was doing and stared at her. Suddenly, he asked, "Are you going to go all emo on me like Kazemaru?"

"No, no," she said, flustered, "I was just wondering."

Endou stared at her for another moment, then said, "Okay," and went back to hanging up the ornament he was holding.

Aki sighed a little, but went back to what she was doing too. I was hard to go into these types of topics with Endou because he didn't take clues easily. "Well at least he does like me as a friend," she thought to herself.

Around thirty seconds later when they were almost finished, Endou broke the silence (which was not awkward as it was filled with the holiday feeling) by saying, "Did you you mean in _that way_ when you asked me?"

Now the silence became awkward and tense. "Yeah..." Aki replied, her voice trailing off to a whisper. They were lucky that they didn't need to look at each other in the eyes, because if they did, Aki was sure she was going to faint.

"I'm not sure how to say this," Endou said. Aki felt her heart plummet to the ground. But right before it hit rock bottom and shattered to a million pieces, Endou continued, "It's kind of hard to describe. You make me feel happy like no one can. And whenever we win a match, I always feel like it is partly because you are supporting us with everything you have like you're part of the team. So I guess that means I like you in _that way_."

Those words gave her falling heart wings and made it fly back up. That was the power of Endou. He could make anyone sad happy.

"I'm so happy. I like you in that way too," she said as she wiped away a tear of joy, "And thank you, Endou-kun." "For everything," she whispered to herself.

**Ya! Finally finished the last story in the An Inazuma Christmas:2014 collection! Hope everyone has a merry Christmas and is able to spend it happily with their loved ones like Fudou, Takanashi, Sakuma, Haruna, Endou, and Aki.**


End file.
